Posted on 04/25/2007 6:54:31 AM PDT by NYer
“WOW -- coming from RC tradition I thought I’d never return to the Rosary. But here it is and here SHE IS. Blessed be, Mairly.”
The “here” in this message, found on herchurch.org, is Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco. But the SHE is not the Mother of God. SHE is “God/dess.”
On Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Ebenezer opens its sanctuary for the “Christian Goddess Rosary.” The church says it offers “Goddess Rosary Beads” and that “prayers and suggested meditations will be on hand as well as incense, candles and bells.”
“The Goddess rosary is grounded in traditions of the Christian Church and the proclamation of the gospel which is a vision of release from bondage for a new creation,” says the church’s web site.
The Goddess Rosary page on herchurch.org says that though “God as Father plays an important role” in Christian tradition, its “exclusive emphasis... contributes to a limited understanding of God, an understanding that supports a domination structure that oppresses and subordinates women.” Jesus used “Abba” as a “revolutionary deconstruction of domination structures of his day in both religious and social institutions.” The modern task is to do the same with “Goddess.”
Ebenezer, however, does not want to eradicate masculine images of God but to balance them with feminine images to “confront the biblical texts, products of their day and cultures, for the blatant patriarchal biases and misogynist attitudes.” And herchurch.org cites three Catholic theologians in support this confrontation: Harvard’s Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Fordham University’s Sister Elizabeth Johnson, and Rosemary Radford Ruether (who will lecture students in the course, “The History of God in Feminist Theological Discourse,” at LA’s Mount St. Mary’s College this spring.) Ruether calls the exclusive use of male imagery for God “idolatry.”
Herchurch.org offers a “Hail Goddess” prayer by feminist theologian Carol Christ, formerly of Harvard Divinity School but now director of the Ariadne Institute for Myth and Ritual in Greece. The prayer goes: “Hail Goddess full of grace. Blessed are you and blessed are all the fruits of your womb. For you are the MOTHER of us all. Hear us now and in all our needs. O blessed be, O blessed be. Amen.”
“I felt that I had stepped into a Presence, like a mother’s warm embrace,” wrote Dalyn Cook of Ebenezer’s Goddess Rosary. “The attendees were few in number, yet there was a sense of fullness in this welcoming space. I inhaled deeply the earthy scent of the incense, sending up delicate tendrils of smoke which curled around the altar in a nimbus visible against the warm rays of the evening sun filtering through the stained-glass windows....
“From the basket of rosaries, I took into my hand a strand of vibrantly-colored beads with a silver goddess icon in place of the traditional cross. The goddesses came in a variety of shapes and sizes, celebrating the beauty of the feminine form; I found reflections of my own figure in the full hips and Rubenesque curves of my goddess,” Cook wrote.
Not that your point isn't important, context is needed. The "Queen of Heaven" referred to moon worship. In this instance, it would more directly apply to the Muslims.
The root of their obsession always comes down to self-worship.
Since the world doesn’t love them enough, they conclude the answer is self-worship.
Sadly, women are most vulnerable to such nonsense. It’s the new aged feminism, in the can and ready for distribution to a lot of folks who bought the “you can have it all” propaganda.
Now it’s all so sad and way too late to fix what father time has taken.
Prayer to Mary was the beginning of the error that naturally lead to this.
Prayer to saints belittles Jesus in 2 ways. First it ignores all of His Word about prayer. He says nothing about praying to "Saints". Second it denies His work on the cross which makes all believers saints at the moment they believe.
The Early Church Fathers on Intercession of the Saints - Catholic/Orthodox Caucus
Prayer to saints celebrates Christ's work by pointing out the unity of the Church, and the reality of eternal life in heaven.
Those who reject it must perforce answer St. Paul's question "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" by saying that both death and the grave have won a spectacular victory, conquering Christ's Church and destroying its unity by separating the faithful on earth from the love and prayers of the faithful in heaven.
And that really belittles Christ's work on the cross.
I wanted to point out that Elizabeth called Mary “Blessed” and the “Mother of my Lord.”
That is special, but it does not denote a “goddess” as this thread would have people think.
Thanks for your reply.
“here is a protestant church, now using a goddess in their worship”
Please- This is a ‘protestant’ church as much as AL Sharpton is a “reverend”. Pagans are more like it.
You nailed it.
Jesus is not God. Jesus is the son of God the Father. He is seated at the right hand of God making intersession for mankind. He doesn't even know the time the Father will decide to have him return.
If Jesus is King what is Mary?
Right. It’s kind of hard to ignore it when it’s right there in black and white.
Idolatry is exactly that. Overt celebration of the work instead of the artist, to stay in metaphore.
Context again...
Jesus is the Davidic King who rules forever. As the Davidic King, His Mother sits at His right hand as the Queen Mother--as did Bathsheba with Soloman (1 Kings 2:19).
She is also our Mother. As Christ is our brother in our divine sonship and our Bridegroom--as the Church is His Bride.
She is also the Ark of the New Covenant who bore the same elements as the Ark of the old Covenant--the Rod of Aaron for the priesthood, the Tablets of the Law, and the manna (the bread come down from Heaven). Just so is Jesus the High Priest, the Word and the Bread come down from Heaven. God's Shekinah Glory was promised to overshadow Her as it did the Ark of the old Covenant when God was present.
She is also the Mother of God (Theotokos) as Jesus said He and the Father are One.
I could go on but you see that she has many roles to play.
It would be nice if those particular scriptures even once suggest what we were talking about.
just curious - are you part of a Christian denomination? If so, which?
**It would be nice if those particular scriptures even once suggest what we were talking about.**
They do.
Digusting show of nastiness. Yuk!!!! I am sure that God is not amused.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.